Looks at own CV full of non fake degrees.
Thinking about my own unemployment…
Honestly, I’m concerned by the falsified degrees and haphazard vetting, not that someone without a set of all-hallowed pieces of paper had access to government records.
It might be a result of well-meaning, but stupid, hiring and promotion regulations that require you to have a degree to rise above a certain level.
I spent 49 years in government IT as a developer, and was frequently creating things that were far beyond anything the universities were teaching. Had I wanted to move into upper management, I would have had to go back to college (I had only 3 semesters of pre-engineering, before I left college for the Air Force), and take classes that were far below what I had already done, just to get the magic piece of paper so I could get promoted from low-level team leader/supervisor to mid-level management.
This guy may well have been competent in his field, but stuck due to a lack of a required, but generally unnecessary, college degree. If he just faked everything, that’s a different story, but his superiors seem to have been happy with his job performance before the fraud was uncovered.
On the plus side, this sort of blatant fakery is clear evidence that the OPM background check data that gushed forth to parties unknown is clearly less valuable than commonly believed! Vindication, truly serious crisis denied, situation averted!
The concerning thing is the…ethical flexibility…especially when combined with the fact that it creates a comparatively easily discoverable secret that the target might be willing to go to some lengths to conceal if threatened with exposure.
Neither of those qualities are something you want in your tech department. I find blanket requirements for credentials foolish, especially when dealing with internal candidates where you have actual information; but it is hard to feel good about people willing to lie about the matter.
Don’t these employers even ask for proofs like tests?
It has always bothered me the jobs I have gotten which obviously do not require a degree but that was enough to either qualify me or push me to the top of the list despite in at least one case knowing there was a far more qualified candidate.
A university degree has become a self fulfilling prophecy where even menial jobs require a four year degree of any sort just to qualify, because especially at educational institutions they can then point at the value of their product, it lets people get a job there.
It seems like a brilliant and oh so PC class and perhaps race filter which only lets ‘people like us’ even get past the application process by virtue of having the free four years and available funds to grow the colorful plumage required.
(edit)Lying is bad, but requiring a degree for everything has become a big problem in a world where on job training is no longer provided and for the most part nobody wastes time evaluating the claimed skills a candidate actually posses.
The US military is a perfect example, the officer and gentleman, thinkers or lords, are now chosen for possessing a four year degree, the enlisted, the serfs or workers, are those who came to the military seeking skills or college money, there is the mustang route but this very rare anymore.
I just think it’s funny that this guy’s name will make him automatically a suspect any time he boards a plane.
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